Service to humanity, the Sai legacy

Sai Baba was my guru. I should say that he chose me to be his disciple about 20 years ago. Since then, he has been the greatest source of inspiration to me, my late wife, daughter and a few of my staff. He may have done several miracles, but the greatest among them would be the transformation of even the hardest of people into compassionate people. His sayings, “Love all, serve all,” “Help ever, hurt never” summarise all that he has taught people. Being a doctor, I have had several opportunities to serve people.

Miracles do happen, people get cured of serious illnesses and, as doctors, we have seen such cases. But that is not everything about him — even where miracles and cures have not actually happened, families have been comforted by his love. He was a rare person and we are blessed to have had the opportunity of interacting with him in close proximity.

A kind word for all

The values he embodied have over the years been imbibed by us into our daily lives and work. In our institutions, we try to help people whenever and wherever possible. We make sure we have a kind word for everyone.

As convener of the Tamil Nadu Chapter of the Sai Baba Trust, I have a responsibility to continue the good work being done by the Trust. Many of his property and institutions come under the Trust in the State. All schools run by it follow the principle of “Educare,” where the best values in children are brought out. It's not just about education. It is giving children educational human value. We will continue to strive to maintain the educare principles in all our schools.

Making an impact

In 2007, as many as 75 doctors in India joined hands to give charitable medical treatment, according to their capacity. If even one bed is given or one scan is done free of cost for the really deserving, it would make a huge impact. This practice later spread to other States as well.

Water for Chennai

Another great service done by Sai Baba is bringing Kandaleru water to Chennai, even though he was neither asked nor expected to help alleviate water scarcity in the city. He did it all by himself — he convinced different State governments, with conflicting points of view, to allow him to lay the pipelines that would transport water. He succeeded where the Indian government and, maybe even the British government, had failed.

Sai Baba inspires people to give a little more to humanity. If even a small percentage of his pure, selfless love percolates down to society, it is a great thing.

Baba will continue to inspire us irrespective of whether his physical form is present or not. All his good work will definitely continue. All of us in the Trust have been taught by him and it is now our main aim to continue his service to society with a renewed enthusiasm. It will never end, and will only intensify from here on.

(The writer is Chairman and Chief Diabetologist of Dr. Mohan's Diabetes Specialities Centre,